Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, 1992 (ICPSR 6587)

This survey is the first broad-based, systematic
examination of the nature of civil litigation in state general
jurisdiction trial courts. Data collection was carried out by the
National Center for State Courts with assistance from the National
Association of Criminal Justice Planners and the United States Bureau
of the Census. The data collection produced two datasets. Part 1,
Tort, Contract, and Real Property Rights Data, is a merged sample of
approximately 30,000 tort, contract, and real prop... (more info)

This survey is the first broad-based, systematic
examination of the nature of civil litigation in state general
jurisdiction trial courts. Data collection was carried out by the
National Center for State Courts with assistance from the National
Association of Criminal Justice Planners and the United States Bureau
of the Census. The data collection produced two datasets. Part 1,
Tort, Contract, and Real Property Rights Data, is a merged sample of
approximately 30,000 tort, contract, and real property rights cases
disposed during the 12-month period ending June 30, 1992. Part 2,
Civil Jury Cases Data, is a sample of about 6,500 jury trial cases
disposed over the same time period. Data collected include information
about litigants, case type, disposition type, processing time, case
outcome, and award amounts for civil jury cases.

Access to these data is restricted. Users interested in obtaining these data must complete a Restricted Data Use Agreement, specify the reasons for the request, and obtain IRB approval or notice of exemption for their research.

Study Description

Citation

United States Department of Justice. Office of Justice Programs. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Civil Justice Survey of State Courts, 1992. ICPSR06587-v5. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2011-11-02. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR06587.v5

Universe:
Forty-five jurisdictions chosen to represent the 75 most
populous counties in the nation.

Data Types:
event/transaction data

Data Collection Notes:

This data collection contains replicate weight
variables appropriate for calculating sampling errors using the Wesvar
PC variance estimation program, plus two variables, VARSTRAT and
VARUNIT, that were developed as part of the processing for creating
the replicate weights. The replicate weights were created by the
jackknife method and the user must specify the JKN variance estimation
procedure when using Wesvar PC. The JKN variance estimation procedure
will not work correctly unless two files of factors are attached to
each Wesvar file. Two sets of factor files are included in the study.
To work with the Wesvar data file for Part 1 (Tort, Contract, and Real
Property Rights Data), users should download da6587.p3 and da6587.p4,
change the file names to fpcp1.txt and jknfp1.txt, and attach both
files to the Wesvar data file. Similarly, to work with the Wesvar data
file for Part 2 (Civil Jury Cases Data), users should download
da6587.p5 and da6587.p6, change the file names to fpcp2.txt and
jknfp2.txt, and attach both files to the Wesvar data file. In
addition, the degrees of freedom should be set at 77 in Wesvar (119
replicate weights, 42 varstrat units) for Part 1 and at 24 (42
replicate weights, 18 varstrat units) for Part 2 in order to calculate
the correct confidence intervals.

Methodology

Sample:
The sample for this study was designed and selected by the
United States Bureau of the Census. It was a two-stage stratified
sample with 45 of the 75 most populous counties selected at the first
stage. The top 75 counties account for about 37 percent of the United
States population and about half of all civil filings. The 75 counties
were divided into four strata based on aggregate civil disposition
data for 1990 obtained through telephone interviews with court staffs
in the general jurisdiction trial courts. The sample consisted of
tort, contract, and real property rights cases disposed between July
1, 1991, and June 30, 1992.

Data Source:

standard coding forms completed by court staff

Extent of Processing: ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of
disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major
statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to
these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

Performed consistency checks.

Standardized missing values.

Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.

Version(s)

Original ICPSR Release:1996-10-01

Version History:

2011-11-02 All parts are being moved to restricted access and will be available only using the restricted access procedures.

2006-03-30 File CB6587.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2006-03-30 File CB6587.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2006-03-30 File CB6587.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2006-03-30 File CB6587.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2006-03-30 File CB6587.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads.

2005-11-04 On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one
or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well
as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable,
and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to
reflect these additions.

2004-06-01 The data have been updated by the principal
investigator to include replicate weights and a few other variables.
The codebook and SAS and SPSS data definition statements have been
revised to reflect these changes.

2001-03-26 The data have been updated by the principal
investigator to include replicate weights. The codebook and SAS and
SPSS data definition statements have been revised to reflect these
changes.

2001-03-26 The data had been updated by the
principal investigator to include replicate weights. The codebook and
SAS and SPSS data definition statements had been revised to reflect
these changes.

1997-07-29 The codebook had been revised to
correct errors documenting both data files. Column location (and
width) of variable WGHT "TOTAL WEIGHT" was incorrectly shown as 10.4
for Part 1, Tort, Contract, and Real Property Data. It was accurately
shown in the data definition statements as 9.4. Variables listed after
WGHT were inaccurately reported one column off in the
codebook. Similarly, column location (and width) of variable WGHT
"TOTAL WEIGHT" was incorrectly shown as 10.2 for Part 2, Civil Jury
Data. It was accurately shown in the data definition statements as
9.2. Variables listed after WGHT were inaccurately reported one column
off in the codebook.